Chapter 4 - The Woman at the Gate
Vanessa pressed the intercom button like she still lived there.
"Daniel, open the gate."
I watched her on the security monitor.
Grant Vale stood half a step behind her, gray suit, silver hair, no expression.
I had met him twice. Vanessa introduced him as a family attorney who handled estate planning.
Now I knew he had been connected to Rachel's hospital records nine years earlier.
"Do not let them inside."
"I know the police are there. You're frightening Oliver for no reason."
My son flinched at her voice.
"You are not coming in."
Her face changed for only a second.
"Daniel, you are upset. Grant brought documents that will clear this up."
"Did you work at St. Matthew's the night Oliver was born?"
Grant leaned toward her and said something I couldn't hear.
"I worked there for three years. You know that."
"No. You told me you worked at County General."
Then Grant stepped toward the camera.
"Mr. Mercer, medical files are often inaccurate. If you've obtained protected records illegally, you should be careful what you do with them."
"That sounds almost like a threat."
I pressed the intercom again. "Who was Baby B?"
Vanessa's face lost all color.
They walked back to the SUV.
Before getting in, Vanessa looked directly into the camera.
She lifted her phone and typed.
YOU HAVE NO IDEA WHAT RACHEL AGREED TO.
"She's trying to make you doubt your dead wife," she said.
Rachel and I had been young, scared, buried in hospital forms. Could she have agreed to something without telling me?
Then the tablet technician called from the kitchen.
"I found an external backup reference."
The old system had once synced to a cloud account belonging to the mansion's previous owner. Most files were gone, but one local index remained.
It listed a hidden directory created three months earlier.
Name: OLIVER_SAFE.
Password hint: MOM'S SONG.
"I know the password."
He typed the first line of the lullaby Rachel used to sing to him from an old recording.
May you like
And one file named:
IF DAD FINDS THIS, VANESSA LIED ABOUT THE HOSPITAL.
